Klarinet Archive - Posting 000431.txt from 2000/09

From: "Holmes, Michael H." <MHolmes@-----.org>
Subj: [kl] Re: Tonic
Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2000 16:41:19 -0400

Bill,

I'm new to this list, and fairly new to the clarinet, but not to music, so
I'll take a stab at it.

As far as ending on the tonic chord, the great majority of all western music
ends on the tonic chord. There may have been one or more key changes in the
piece, so the "tonic" that the piece ends on may not be the original tonic.
But it's very unusual for a piece to end on any chord other than the tonic
chord in the current key of the piece. If a piece ends on any other chord,
it sounds unresolved.

It's also extremely common for music to begin on the tonic chord, although
exceptions to this are much more common. I wouldn't know how to estimate a
frequency other than to look at a large number of pieces and count the
occurrences.

As for beginning and/or ending on the tonic note, I'm sure it's very common,
but I can't estimate a frequency. I will make this observation -- since
nearly all pieces end on the tonic chord, ending on the tonic note (which of
course is part of the tonic chord) probably happens with greater frequency
than beginning on the tonic note.

Mike Holmes

> Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2000 12:34:53 -0700 (PDT)
> To: klarinet@-----.org
> From: Bilwright@-----.net (William Wright)
> Subject: Tonic
> Message-ID: <20212-39BE855D-4914@-----.net>
>
> Since my question about the tonic didn't receive any answers, I'm
> wondering if my question was so nonsensical or irrelevant (or
> uneducated) that people interpreted it as a poor attempt at humor rather
> than as a sincere question?
>
> Would anyone care to discuss how often 'real' music (as opposed to
> 'easy music for beginners', which is greatly simplified and edited)
> begins and/or ends on the tonic note or the tonic chord?
>
> Thank you,
> Bill

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